When you create a press kit, you must fulfill two main aims: promoting the brand and message of your organization, and meeting the needs of working journalists who cover your field. You need the press kit to be both informative and attractive. It should answer basic questions that reporters have about your nonprofit and give them resources such as pictures and biographies. Ideally it should help your organization garner positive coverage for your cause.

1. Write a history of your nonprofit, mentioning the highlights since its founding to the present day. Think of this as the organization’s bio. This should ideally be around 400 words long, and contain the essential facts and figures associated with the organization.

2. Create a list of the executives, staff and key players in your nonprofit and write thumbnail bios for each one. Take high-resolution pictures of the most important staff members to include with this list.

3. Prepare a high-resolution file of your logo and any other branding material that you would like media outlets to use.

4. Write a bullet-pointed list of essential facts and interesting tidbits about the field in which your nonprofit operates. For instance, if you are a medical charity, you could include statistics about the disease you are fighting. This document gives journalists some background information to work with.

5. Contact people whom your nonprofit has helped to ask if they would contribute brief testimonials for your press kit.

6. Include candid pictures from events run recently by your nonprofit.

7. Gather video and audio resources from recent events such as conferences or TV interviews involving officers from your nonprofit.

8. Prepare a file of your press clippings – any positive stories that have appeared about your organization in the media recently.

9. Prepare a document giving details of the person whom the media should contact for more information or to schedule interviews. Include phone and email contact information.

10. Decide on a platform for your press kit. While large companies often create printed versions of their press kit as a kind of brochure, many organizations with a smaller budget simply make all of the documents, pictures and information available on their website. This can be accessed by a “Media Kit” link on the home page. Having items such as pictures available in electronic form is usually more useful to media outlets than a paper file.